Guest Opinion: The backlash that never happened

Wednesday

Apr 16, 2014 at 4:55 PM

By the time I got home from the Boston Marathon a year ago I started to receive confusing texts from friends and family asking me if I was OK. After having had a great position to watch the marathon for the first four hours, I had decided to leave for food, serendipitously deciding not to return to the precise location where the bombs went off just minutes after I had left.

Mario MoreiraGuest Columnist

By the time I got home from the Boston Marathon a year ago I started to receive confusing texts from friends and family asking me if I was OK. After having had a great position to watch the marathon for the first four hours, I had decided to leave for food, serendipitously deciding not to return to the precise location where the bombs went off just minutes after I had left.

As I turned on the television, the first images I saw were the flags being blown out, first responders rushing in, and fear and confusion.

My initial reaction was shock, horror and anger. I was horrified to see what happened to the crowd behind the flags, so many innocent victims, folks I cheered with, some dead and many wounded. I was also angry. These were my neighbors, my brothers and sisters that I had been in the crowd with just one hour before. I could have easily been a victim, but now many in the city that I loved lay in the wake of unspeakable violence.

Once it was learned who the Boston Marathon culprits were, my thoughts turned to the American Muslim community and the fear for what might lie ahead. As president of the Islamic Center of Boston-Wayland Center I immediately reflected on the years that followed 9/11. The misunderstanding, our children being called “terrorists” in school, the no fly lists, and the countless hate crimes that reverberated across the country. As Americans, we were all victims on 9/11, but what followed left the American Muslim community withdrawn, disconnected, left as the “other” in the shadows of our mourning.

However, in Boston what we soon realized was that much of that misunderstanding was due to the fact that few knew the American Muslim community or knew us well, and we set out to change that.

In the days and weeks that followed the Boston Marathon bombing those interfaith partners immediately reached out to the center and the American Muslim MetroWest community. Many of those interfaith leaders with whom we had worked so closely with in recent years were the first to ask how we were doing, the first to visit, and invited us numerous times to their services. We mourned together, we prayed together, we gave blood together, and we fundraised for victims together.

The Wayland police chief was another source of great support. He and his team are truly here to serve and protect. Thirteen years after 9/11, the Boston community understood that the Tsarnaev brothers were very different people than the rest of the American Muslim community. Terrorism is designed to divide us, and over the past year Boston withstood that temptation, standing tall as one city together.

A year later I couldn’t be more proud to be a part of Boston Strong. American Muslims are part of our nation’s fabric, from coast to coast, working in every profession, serving in our armed forces, and holding valuable positions in American and political life. Most importantly this week, we will be cheering on the runners in the Boston Marathon, more than ever and prouder than ever to call this city and this country home.

Mario Moreira is president of the Islamic Center of Boston in Wayland.